--- In [email protected], "Kirk" <kirk_bernha...@...> wrote:
RichardM wrote: > I wonder why you're not expected/required to change your mantra as > > "early middle years" all too quickly gives way to "later middle > > years" and beyond? "Kirk" <kirk_bernha...@...> wrote: > That's the part relating to istadevata. Each of the "expansion of awareness" > mantras are related to "expanding" practice or related to Mahalakshmi. So > they are all mantras of Mahalakshmi. > > Alternatively they are all mantras of Mahakali or Saraswati. Each of these > Sahasranamas contains the names of the others. Thus they are all one. Yes? > > Seems at first Maharishi used only Ram and Shyam at first, and he refined > his mantra lore as he went along. TM is ultimately a Vaishnava methodology. > I'm trying to keep up with you Kirk, but I'm a bit weak on the lingo. I think in Rubberband Paul's book on MMY, or some place, MMY said very early on that the mantra is just selected according to the meditator's chosen deity (that's istadevata, right?). I think that might be where he also says your mantra could be ANY old word, but on the other hand some words/sounds might be more appropriate than others, and all that. So is it like this: as Westerners don't have a chosen deity - istadevata - MMY just created a simple method of assigning them one with at least some semblance of "rationality" (i.e. as might be thought appropriate for your stage of life at the time). In which case it actually doesn't matter that much which mantra you have (as long as it is one of the 'bija' mantras I suppose). And of course, that's also why there's no need to switch mantras as you get older. "TM is ultimately a Vaishnava methodology" - why so, would you say?
